no shortcuts in basketball

Chapter 296 Nine crowns in ten years

What level of player is Rose now?

He played 51 games for the Bulls last season, averaging 9.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. He was the sixth man at the beginning of the season, but suffered an injury in the middle. After returning from injury, his position was taken away by Murray. Gradually, he spent most of the playoffs sitting on the bench.

Generally speaking, he is now a substitute player who has outside shooting and is still a big threat on breakthroughs. When healthy, he is a reliable offensive scorer, but he has injury risks.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that the Mavericks signed him to a two-year, 2 million contract with a player option in the second year.

Although he has lost his former courage, he still has the strength to fight. More importantly, he can reunite with Xu Yong and his desire to compete is full. This is very important for him at this stage of his career.

The specific manifestation is that on the second day after arriving in Dallas, Rose enthusiastically joined Xu Yong and DeRozan's summer training camp.

It was hot in Dallas in July, but it couldn't compare to the heat in their hearts.

During their special training, a very interesting thing happened in the NBA free market.

The 2019 free agent market can be regarded as the most lively after 2014.

There are as many as nine star players this year, including many superstars like Leonard, Butler, and Irving.

Then at this time, James made some remarks.

He began to comment on his former teammates.

The first person he evaluated was Klay Thompson.

"I think Klay is the best 3D star in the history of the NBA and should also be the strongest scorer without the ball."

Then he commented on Irving.

"Kyrie was the reason why I chose to return to Cleveland. I used to treat him as a kid, but he has great talent. He has now proven that he is the best player with the best combination of man and ball in the history of the NBA."

Three sentences are the strongest, and the opening of the mouth is the most powerful in history. This is simply unimaginable.

Yes, Thompson's contract also expires this summer. James is obviously expressing his recruitment of these former teammates in his own way.

This operation can be expressed in another way: after dating multiple girlfriends, looking back on the past, I found that I had two good ex-girlfriends to see if I could turn around.

As a result, Thompson quickly reached a contract extension with the Warriors the next day, even sacrificing part of his salary for it.

"I'm enjoying life in the Bay Area and I think I'm going to stay here until I retire, that's my plan."

Then not two days later, Irving also announced that he had reached a five-year maximum-salary contract extension with the Cavaliers and joined the Los Angeles...Clippers through a sign-and-trade.

"I'm looking forward to living in Los Angeles and working with Blake (Griffin)."

This scene vividly illustrates when you fantasize about getting back together with your ex-girlfriend, but your ex-girlfriend replies to you that either she is already married or has a new love.

The key is that although James didn't say it clearly, his obvious recruitment was slapped in the face.

However, when Xu Yong watched the free market news after training, he was attracted by another key piece of news.

Anthony Davis changed his agent and joined Rich Paul.

It is very common for players to change agents in the NBA, but this change touched Xu Yong's memory.

Because in the history of James' Lakers career, in addition to "hometown basketball" at the beginning, there is another very classic term: "agent basketball".

As the name suggests, when a player wants to come to the Lakers, he will first sign up for Paul Paul. So when a player signs with Paul Paul later, the first reaction of the fans is that this person is going to be James' teammate.

And it was Davis who started this term.

So what should I say? Some things are really destined.

Although this has something to do with Irving's choice to leave the Cavaliers, whether it is Davis from the Pelicans or Davis from the Cavaliers, because the home team itself is in a too small market, and a place like Los Angeles has a greater impact on him. attractive.

The Mavericks also completed their most important offseason reinforcement at this time, signing Ty Gibson.

Gibson had been playing for the Pelicans before. After his contract expired, two years after Xu Yong retired, he joined the Timberwolves on a two-year contract.

His performance has been very stable, and he has been a qualified starter in the NBA since the Pelicans period.

But limited by his talent, his upper limit is limited to this.

Especially as an older rookie who entered the NBA in the same year as Xu Yong, he is now 34 years old and his career as an inside player has reached the final stage.

But no matter how old Gibson is, his overall strength is stronger than Powell.

小牛队拿出了所有诚意，用全额中产（2019~2020赛季925.8万美元）和他达成了一份3年2800万的合同。

This means that he will become the Mavericks' starting power forward in the new season.

It is worth mentioning that Gibson received a higher offer from the Knicks, but he ultimately chose the Mavericks.

The reason for the choice is also very simple, because the Mavericks have Xu Yong.

As a result, something interesting happens.

Although Gibson and Jokic are not from the same period, they all have a common identity: Xu Yong's former teammate.

Some people are disliked by their former teammates like ex-boyfriends, while Xu Yong's former teammates are like good brothers who come from all over to vote.

And if Mavericks head coach Malone is included, the Dallas Mavericks may be renamed the Dallas Bulls.

The choice of the Mavericks management is completely understandable. Although Rose and Gibson are no longer at their peak, they are familiar with Xu Yong and can make Xu Yong feel comfortable both on and off the court.

This operation, which can be called "licking" to some extent, is in sharp contrast to the previous Bulls.

Naturally, Xu Yong had nothing to hesitate. He jumped out of his original contract with the Mavericks and immediately reached a five-year maximum salary extension.

This means that he will play for the Mavericks until at least 2024.

And in this way, the Mavericks' core lineup for next season has been determined.

Starting: Wright, DeRozan, Xu Yong, Gibson, Jokic;

Rotation: Rose, Dorian Finney-Smith, Powell, Purtle.

This lineup, even taking into account factors such as the status of DeRozan and Xu Yong, Rose's injury, has been significantly improved compared to last season.

Whether it can become a championship-level team or even a popular team depends on the team's state.

After all, the same players in different states have completely different effects.

The team that was the park champion the previous year may also play in the play-offs the following year if it is strengthened, and vice versa.

On the same day, Leonard also made the final decision. He chose to renew a five-year maximum salary contract with the Raptors and stay with the Raptors.

They fell short in the finals last season, which also made him choose a different choice from the one Xu Yong knew.

As one of the Raptors' main competitors in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls basically had no big gains this summer.

If your opponent is reinforcing you but you are not, standing still is regressing.

After the free market ended, the Bulls in the East had been expelled from the Raptors' strongest opponent, and this qualification was given to the Celtics.

The Celtics gave up on renewing Thomas this summer and signed Porzingis instead.

With the twin towers of Porzingis and Horford, as well as the double pick of Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics are even considered the favorite to win the championship in the eyes of many fans.

However, the changes in the free market did not affect Xu Yong too much. Except for calling Gibson when he learned that he was coming to the Mavericks, he spent the rest of the time in the training hall.

In order to achieve this, he even promoted many commercial activities in the summer.

Last season's defeat can be attributed to the short time since his comeback, but there is no excuse for the new season.

This kind of training lasted until mid-August, when Xu Yong flew back to China directly from Dallas.

This return to China is not to participate in business activities or a trip to China, but to prepare for the World Cup at the end of August.

This year's World Cup is held domestically.

For basketball fans, this is also the first time that the largest basketball event has been held in China since the 08 Olympics.

So Xu Yong will come back even in the World Cup. After all, there are not many opportunities to play in front of home, and it may even be his last chance before retiring.

The Chinese team in this World Cup has attracted much attention.

On the one hand, it is because they are the champions of the Rio Olympics, and on the other hand, it is also because of the dream team.

After the defeat in Rio, fans all over the world thought that the Dream Team would hold back a big wave and avenge their shame this year. However, they did not expect that the Dream Team would directly pull a big wave.

Not only are top players such as Durant and James not participating, but even Westbrook, Harden, and George have also announced their withdrawal one after another.

Although the US team has never paid much attention to the World Cup, this is the first time we have seen this scene.

In the end, the strongest member of this Dream Thirteen team is the Hornets' star Kemba Walker, followed by the Jazz's new core Mitchell, and the Celtics' immature double prospects Jaylen Brown and Jason... Tatum and even rotation-level players like Marcus Smart and Mason Plumes made the cut.

Although some fans expressed the view that "Although there is a lack of starlight, without big-name players, they can perform their duties, and the overall strength of the Dream Team is stronger." For this reason, they even listed "Even NBA substitute players who go to other national teams are Thigh" argument, but this dream team is still looked down upon.

After all, if you don’t even have the starlight, how can you deserve to be called the Dream Team?

Moreover, they lost so completely to the Chinese team in Rio. How can they win with a worse lineup?

As the biggest rival of the Chinese team over the years, the Dream Team has stretched its hips like this, and the Chinese team has naturally become a favorite.

Xu Yong went directly to the national team's training base the day after returning to China.

This time the national team did not go to Sanya, but chose the Beilun training base in Ningbo for closed training.

The Beilun training base is very large, and many national teams usually choose to train here.

When Xu Yong went there, he bumped into some of them and was pulled to take a photo with them.

When it came to the national team, the men's basketball players were even more excited to see him.

For these players, whether they are young players or veterans, their past brilliant achievements in the national team were all brought to them by Xu Yong.

With Xu Yong back, they have a backbone.

"Brother Xu!" The first one to come up was Guo Ailun, who spoke authentic Northeastern dialect. "Xu Yong, you are back. We really don't know how we would manage without you!"

To be honest, if Xu Yong is still retired, it will be as difficult as climbing to the sky for the men's basketball team to reach the top at home.

Xu Yong smiled and hugged this former boy who now had a beard like Curry.

Then he looked around at the other people around him. Most of them were still the same people from three years ago, except for a few new people.

And, of course, there was Kyle Anderson, standing there waiting, grinning.

Kyle Anderson's mother, Suzanne, knew that her grandfather came from China when she was a child. When she grew up, she began to search for her roots through various methods. Then she continued to search in the vast sea of ​​people, and finally found her grandfather Samuel's. My brother's grandson.

Last year, she took Anderson to Shenzhen, China, to recognize her ancestors, and wrote down her lineage in the family tree. Kyle Anderson then had a Chinese name called Li Kyle.

Then Jeremy Lin faded out of the NBA due to injuries, and his strength could no longer meet the needs of the national team. The Basketball Association took advantage of the situation and planned to recruit Li Kai this year.

Because the Basketball Association needs to consider the blood factor in this regard, Anderson is not only satisfied now, but also played for the Bulls (the former number one home team for Chinese fans). There is no more suitable candidate than him.

If it weren't for the fact that there were other people in the training hall, Anderson would have habitually called "boss" like Jokic.

After Xu Yong finished greeting the others, Anderson came up and happily gave him a big hug.

Anderson's official announcement was planned after the end of last season, and it took some time to go through the process.

He had already played with the national team in the national team's warm-up match before, but the effect was average.

In addition to Xu Yong not participating in the warm-up match with the team, veteran Yi Jianlian, who had just ended his contract with the Bulls, also suffered an injury and did not play.

Without them, Zhou Qi is not an offensive player, so the men's basketball team can only point at Anderson and attack with the ball.

But Anderson's personal offensive ability is not strong. He is strong in organization and defense, which makes the Chinese men's basketball team's warm-up match offense look very difficult.

Playing in a way that he is not good at makes not only uncomfortable for the fans, but also uncomfortable for him.

But fortunately, Xu Yong is back, and he can finally concentrate on being Xu Yong's Pippen in the national team.

For a period of time after that, Xu Yong trained with the national team. Because most of them were former teammates, he basically didn't need to spend too much time on running in.

Time flies by the end of August, and the 8 Men's Basketball World Cup is about to begin.

This year’s World Cup has many firsts, such as the first time that intercontinental qualifiers are used to select teams, the first time the scale of the event has been increased from the original 24 teams to 32, and the first time a World Cup ambassador has been set up. It will be shared by Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant and Nowitzki.

All in all, fiba's commitment to broadening the influence of the World Cup, coupled with the resurgence of world basketball brought about by Xu Yong's comeback, has attracted a lot of attention to this World Cup.

After adopting the qualifier method this year, fiba officials created a real-time updated team strength list, ranking each team based on their warm-up match performance.

In this ranking, the American team beat the Chinese team to the top spot.

The third is the Serbian team led by Jokic, the fourth is the Greek team led by Antetokounmpo, the fifth is the veteran team Spain, and the sixth is France, which also has many NBA players including Gobert. The seventh team is Australia and the eighth team is Argentina.

It was at this time that the official released some promotional videos one after another, and the phrase "Team USA, don't think you are safe" in the short film shot by Kobe became the focus of heated discussion among fans before the World Cup.

Although theoretically speaking, due to the mediocre performance in the warm-up match, the Chinese team is ranked behind the American team in line with the rules, but this ranking is probably because fans all over the world are waiting to see the joke of this Dream Team 13.

Some fans have even begun to look up information to see where the Dream Team's worst record in team history is. After all, this Dream Team 13, or should just be called Team USA, will create new history if they are not careful.

On the last day of August, the World Cup officially started. This World Cup was hosted by China and then hosted by eight cities, that is, eight groups.

The Chinese team is in a group with Venezuela, Poland and Cote d'Ivoire this year, which is exactly what Xu Yong remembers.

Because according to the rules, the host team itself is the first-tier team, and it has nothing to do with its strength.

In the first game of the group stage, the Chinese team played against the Polish team.

The Chinese team's opening game was held at Wukesong Arena.

Familiar venue, familiar opponents, and even familiar fans around, it is difficult not to awaken the memory deep in Xu Yong's mind.

He had become a commentator back then and witnessed this game from the commentary box that most fans would not dare to watch a second time.

Continuous mistakes were made at the last moment, and the sideline ball became a world-class problem. Zhou Qi was changed to Polish by the fans in the first battle...

The men's basketball team also lost this game and was eliminated from the group stage at home. The basketball market suffered a critical blow and was in a state of collapse.

Although today's situation is completely different from before, Xu Yong felt that his desire to compete was full before the game.

There is everything in this world but no medicine for regrets and no chance to do it over again. But for Xu Yong, reviving his life and seeing the scene in front of him is really like doing it all over again.

Moreover, he is no longer a commentator like Wang Shipeng who can only cry on the sidelines, but a player who plays the game.

After the opening ceremony, the starting players from both sides came on stage one after another.

Chinese team: Li Kai, Ding Yanyuhang, Xu Yong, Yi Jianlian, Zhou Qi;

Poland team: Slaughter, Ponitka, Ser, Wasinski, Hrykaniu.

In the two years since Xu Yong retired, Deng Huade resigned from the national team and the Basketball Association trained domestic coaches. At this time, the head coach of the men's basketball team was Li Nan.

However, this starting lineup was not his handiwork, but Xu Yong's suggestion.

On the offensive end, Anderson plays 1 to hold the ball, and on the defensive end, he plays the 3 position to guard against the opponent's offensive arrow Ponitka.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the lineup becomes taller.

No one knows better than Xu Yong how strong this year's Dream Team is. Without Durant, they are nothing.

Therefore, compared to the Dream Team, their bigger opponents this year are from Europe, including Serbia, Greece, Spain, and France.

In addition to team play, another feature of European basketball is that you are taller and bigger, especially the back line, which crushes you physically, forcing you to help defend and then drive the offense.

However, this lineup also has a weakness, that is, the retreat speed will be slower, which also requires the Chinese team to have a higher success rate on the offensive end.

So at the beginning of the game, Xu Yong came out with a simple screen to receive a pass from Anderson, and then rushed directly to the basket.

There was no defense for three seconds in the international competition. At this time, Polish center Hrykaniu turned towards Xu Yong to help defend.

"Bang! Bang!"

The basketball hit the floor with a dull sound. Xu Yong did not slow down when he saw Hricaniu coming over, but accelerated forward.

When the distance between the two sides was only half a meter, he directly jumped into the air and pulled the ball higher.

Hlicaniu's eyes widened. Of course he knew about Xu Yong, the top player in the NBA, but he was going to fight like this?

"Oh!"

There was no more time for him to think, Xu Yong blasted the ball into the basket like a bomb across him. Under the huge impact, Hlicaniu was directly knocked to the ground.

The camera arrived in time, focusing on the veins popping up in Xu Yong's handwriting and his face full of murderous intent.

Then, Wukesong Arena exploded.

What a ground-breaking opening!

And the key is, even across the screen, they all feel the desire to compete in Xu Yong's eyes.

Although I don’t know why, this year’s Polish team is a bit unlucky.

After completing the offense on the offensive end and returning to the defense, the advantages of the Chinese team's tall lineup were also brought into play.

Xu Yong, Anderson and Zhou Qi formed a defensive net for the Chinese team in positional battles.

Moreover, the wingspan of these three people is excellent, resulting in a large defensive area that this net can cover.

Ponitka, the man who once made the men's basketball team in Xu Yong's memory helpless, and who completed a steal and layup at the last moment of the regular season, used up all his strength to rush to the inside, and a probing shot was directly blocked. Zhou Qi enjoyed a large hot pot.

This directly made the Polish team a little confused about how to fight in the position battle. In the end, they were blocked for a 24-second violation.

Looking back, Xu Yong also continued his tactics to catch the ball and attack.

As a former teammate of the Bulls, and having played for several consecutive seasons, Anderson knows exactly how to pass the ball to Xu Yong most comfortably.

To him, it was just a change of venue.

This time Xu Yong received Anderson's shot that penetrated the defender when he was cutting in. According to the coach Zhang on the sidelines, the ball was just right. One more point was too much, one less point was too little, perfect.

After receiving the ball, Xu Yong was like a tiger gathering momentum. He strode into the paint and smashed the ball into the basket with one hand and a tomahawk in front of Hlicaniu's stunned eyes.

Hlicaniu's expression was one of shock and helplessness, because he was completely helpless in the face of this situation!

At this time, the Polish team's head coach Mike Taylor couldn't help but stretched out his hand and scratched his head.

He also didn't understand why Xu Yong had such a strong desire to attack in the opening game. It felt to him as if the Polish team had some grudge against him.

But this is obviously the first time in history that the two teams have met in the World Series, and they have never even played in a warm-up match.

Damn it!

There was still no offensive attack from the Polish team. This time Potnica was not blocked by Zhou Qi, but was directly blocked by Anderson's long arm behind him.

The rebound was picked off by Yi Jianlian, and the Chinese team pushed for a defensive counterattack. Xu Yong used his offense to contain and assist Ding Yanyuhang, who followed up, to score.

The Chinese team started with a 6-0.

This directly excited the Chinese fans at the scene. Poland is the strongest team in this group besides the Chinese team.

"Defend! Defend!"

Moreover, under the defensive shouts of 20,000 Wukesong fans, the Polish team made a coordination error on the offensive end and passed the ball directly out of bounds.

They say home field advantage, and this is home field advantage in the World Series.

Looking back, Mike Taylor waved and shouted from the sidelines, and the Polish team directly launched a 2-3 zone defense.

There is no defensive three seconds in the international arena, and the venue is smaller than the NBA venue, which tests the players' shooting ability.

This is also the reason why European teams have always been outstanding.

Characteristics of European teams, team, height, and basic skills.

Shooting and dribbling are the biggest basic skills.

But when they did, Xu Yong immediately responded with a mid-range pull-up.

He didn't even hesitate.

"Shh!"

The basketball hollow falls into the pocket.

This goal made Yang Yi in the commentary box shine directly.

As the number one Xu Chui in the country, he has definitely done the most research on Xu Yong, otherwise he would not be able to hold on to this position.

Xu Yong also took a lot of shots last season, but he basically observed the defense before taking shots. This is a sign of failure to recover from his own shots.

But Xu Yong's current level of decisiveness only represents one thing, and that is absolute confidence in his own shooting.

In other words, Xu Yong's shooting feeling has been completely recovered.

This is more important than the outcome of the current game.

The Polish team finally made a three-pointer from Slaughter after a pick-and-roll on the outside.

After finding that they couldn't break through, they had no choice but to look for opportunities on the outside.

This goal made the members of the Polish team breathe a long sigh of relief. You must know that they were beaten 8-0 by the Chinese team at the beginning and had not scored yet.

But before they could take a breath, Xu Yong turned around and hit another 17-foot pull-up.

Two consecutive mid-range shots, this is the price Xu Yong made the Polish team pay after they shrunk their defense.

This time, instead of scratching his head, Taylor could only smile bitterly.

Xu Yong's strength in the fiba arena no longer needs to be proven, or in other words, he had already established himself as the number one player in the fiba arena when he was in Rio.

Most of the time, his performance does not depend on his opponent, but on himself.

It is now obvious that after 6 months of comeback, Xu Yong has returned to the level before retirement.

Although this recovery speed is a bit scary, considering Xu Yong's achievements of five championships in eight years in Chicago, nothing is impossible for him.

The Polish team missed a wave of attacks. Looking back, Xu Yong caught the ball and was attacked by many people.

Taylor switched defenses against Xu Yong at the beginning, and he was not sure about Xu Yong's current competitive state. Now that he has figured it out, there is nothing to hesitate. Not to flank Xu Yong is not disrespectful to Xu Yong, but to his teammates. respect.

Xu Yong passed the ball to Anderson in the double-check, and then passed through the double-check and attacked the basket again after receiving Anderson's return pass.

This time Hrykaniu defended very resolutely. Xu Yong raised the ball with his right hand after seeing it. Hrykaniu was blocked in front and had a shadow, so he jumped up.

Seeing this, Xu Yong pulled the ball back and jumped over the opponent. He could have scored directly, but he threw the ball into the air.

Over there, Zhou Qi took off immediately and easily completed an alley-oop dunk with his long arms.

"Hey! Xu Yong is just playing!" Zhang Weiping was already laughing from ear to ear in the commentary box.

On the court, Xu Yong took the initiative to high-five Zhou Qi while retreating.

Although Zhou Qi failed to become a starter with the Celtics, he has remained in the team and been trained into a rotation-level player. Many of his problems have been corrected, such as the biggest problem of concentration.

If it were the Zhou Qi he knew, he might not have been able to react to the alley-oop just now.

Or to put it another way, Polanqi only exists in legends.

Xu Yong's output only lasted for half a half. He scored 24 points and sent 4 assists in the half, helping the Chinese team establish a nearly 20-point lead.

By the second half, Xu Yong was already losing interest.

In my previous life, I thought Poland was very strong, but that was because the men's basketball team was too weak. Even if Poland could become a dark horse, it was because of its confidence in the group stage.

In fact, if it were not for this World Cup expansion, Poland would not be able to enter the World Cup. It is essentially a second-tier team in Europe.

But sitting in the VIP position on the sidelines watching the game, Xu Yong was in a pretty good mood.

The regret of having to do it again was made up for, and now Kobe came to chat with him, which felt quite good.

"It seems like you are going to win the championship again this year." Kobe couldn't help but ask as he looked at the score on the court.

"I believe in the official vision of fiba." Xu Yong replied with a smile.

Kobe was stunned for a moment, then shook his head, he was not Barkley.

"Five NBA championships, two Olympic championships, and two World Cup championships. I can't imagine how much these numbers will become when you retire." Kobe then said with emotion.

Xu Yong smiled. He didn't know the answer to this question. Only time would give the answer.

But when he thought of this, Xu Yong suddenly raised his head and looked at Kobe's forehead.

After looking at it for a while, he looked away again. He didn't have the ability of a fortune teller and couldn't tell anything.

But he knows that the Kobe Bryant in history will no longer be there next year.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask again: "Are you still using helicopters?"

Kobe smiled and shook his head when he heard this.

"I finally accepted your opinion."

"Did you change your car?"

"No, I bought a private jet."

"...That's pretty good."

When it comes to airports, airplanes are definitely not as convenient as helicopters, but airplanes are the safest means of transportation.

"Kobe, I hope that the next time I get on the championship podium, you will be there to present the trophy to me." Xu Yong continued.

Kobe pouted, then laughed, and finally nodded.

Bill Russell's body can no longer support his continued activities, and the league is already considering his successor.

Jordan is now the boss and is definitely not willing to take on such a job, so as long as Kobe nods, he is the most suitable candidate.

The Chinese team finally defeated the Polish team and won the World Cup on a good start.

This game will greatly improve the confidence of the men's basketball team, after all, they struggled so much in the warm-up matches before.

After a good start, the men's basketball team's subsequent World Cup trip went quite smoothly.

They won all three games in the group stage and easily won the first place in the group stage.

After entering the round robin, they also won two games in a row, and finally entered the quarter-finals with the top spot in the rematch group.

On the other side, although the US team had many ups and downs during the game, in the end it ranked first in the other rematch group with a record of winning 5 games.

If nothing else, the two teams will have to meet in the finals.

Then something unexpected happened.

The Chinese team easily defeated the Czech Republic, but the American team ultimately lost to the French team and missed the semi-finals!

At this time, Kobe Bryant's phrase "Team America, don't think you are safe" officially changed from the focus of hot discussion to a hot meme.

Some fans in China even made comments about applying for UNESCO World Heritage: They couldn't advance to the finals before, and now they can't advance to the semifinals. Will they not be able to advance to the quarterfinals in the future? Well, I won’t be able to compete in the next Olympics, I really don’t even want to lose face!

Of course, this is just a joke from the fans. After all, the Americas have two quotas. The only American teams that have entered the quarterfinals are Argentina and the United States, so they can still play in the Olympics.

But it wasn't just the U.S. team that was upset, Serbia also lost to Argentina in a quarter of the game.

Serbia is very strong, but the core, including Jokic, is too young. This makes them lack experience in the World Series, and they were eventually manipulated by the veteran Scola.

Before the start of the World Cup, the top three in fiba's official strength list had already fallen by two, with only the Chinese team still standing strong.

The Chinese team’s opponent in the semi-finals is Argentina.

However, there will be a qualifying match for 5th to 8th place before the semi-finals start.

Serbia and the United States, the second and third teams in the rankings, met on a narrow road.

As a result, Serbia suppressed the American team throughout the game and directly silenced those fans who were still harboring illusions before the game.

Why don't stars have a clear division of roles? NBA substitute players are always a big deal when they go to other national teams, and they all talk nonsense.

The biggest problem for the American team has always been the lack of chemistry and team awareness.

Replacing a wave of players with less talent does not mean that these points can be changed.

And although Xiao Hua resigned, there are really not many stars that the NBA has trained in the past few years after he took office.

Competitive sports, to put it bluntly, are the same as cultivating Gu. You cannot cultivate them without being ruthless.

Now that Tatum has taken office, although chaos has been restored, it will take time to produce results.

In the semi-finals, Argentina showed their South American basketball and why they were able to defeat Serbia and reach the semi-finals.

The ultimate team basketball and perfect execution make them difficult to stop offensively.

However, Xu Yong destroyed their defense. When the veterans of the Argentine team invested heavily in the defense but had no effect, their offense was naturally greatly affected.

Xu Yong then performed what "offense is the best defense" means.

The final was between the Chinese team and the Spanish team.

Of course, there are still qualifying matches before the start of third, fourth place and the finals.

The U.S. team finally won this time. They defeated the Czech team and finished seventh in the World Cup, setting the worst record in the history of the U.S. men's basketball team.

The final was much more intense than many expected.

The Spanish team is also a group of veterans. Rubio, the "golden boy" in 2008, is now a bearded uncle.

However, they are two extremes from the US team. They are the ultimate team basketball, and the longer they play together, the stronger they become.

The Chinese team fell behind at halftime, but in the second half, the Chinese team began to slowly reverse the situation.

Just like the Mavericks playing the Warriors in the playoffs last season, physical fitness has become a key factor in determining the outcome of the game.

Xu Yong became more energetic as he fought, but Gasol and the others really couldn't run anymore in the end.

Moreover, Yi Jianlian, who was in good form throughout the World Cup, also felt hot.

In the end, Xu Yong and Yi Jianlian joined hands to launch a 13-2 personal attack wave at the end of the quarter amid the cheers of more than Wukesong fans, directly helping the Chinese men's basketball team win the championship trophy at home.

Xu Yong and Yao Ming hugged each other and cried when they finally won the championship.

The difficulty of this championship is even lower than that of the Rio Olympics because of the successive revelations about the American team and the Serbian team.

But the significance of this championship is greater than any championship they have won in the past, because this is the championship on their doorstep, the championship they did not win despite their efforts in 08.

At this time, Yang Yi was also crying over at the commentary box.

Not only because of the World Cup champion in front of him, but also because he saw Xu Yong's physical recovery tonight.

Counting Xu Yong's stable shooting in this World Cup, Xu Yong has really returned to the state before retirement.

This also means that in the NBA next season, Xu Yong's familiar dominance will also return.

After finishing his World Cup journey, Xu Yong quickly returned to the United States and continued to join the training of DeRozan and Rose.

During the time he was away, the two of them had not stopped training.

DeRozan's condition has also improved significantly. As expected, the root cause of all problems in competitive sports is lack of practice.

Moreover, he has lost weight this offseason and will return to his original playing style at the second position next season, which is also very important.

Time flies and it is late September, and the official training camps of each team have begun one after another.

However, there is a very interesting thing before the official start of the Mavericks training camp. The Chinese translation of the Mavericks will be changed from Mavericks to Mavericks.

In fact, this cannot be called a change, because the English "Mavericks" of the Mavericks has nothing to do with the Mavericks. It was just that the original translator forcibly translated it into Mavericks based on the graphics of the team logo.

Its original meaning is dissenters and loners, and some of them are loners, so this is an official correction.

This change is a big deal for domestic fans, after all, the name Mavericks has been with them for so many years.

However, many fans readily accepted this, because changing the team name gave people a brand new feeling.

The Mavericks team in the new season will start a new journey.

(End of this chapter)